You need a Covenant Friend. You need a Best Friend who will bring out the best in you. You need God-sent people in your life to help you during the storms of life and to thrust you into your purpose in life. You need a family, a gang, a clan. I’m not talking about your Church fellowship buddies or Facebook buddies, I’m talking about Buddies who have made a covenant with you, who will take bullets for you. It’s not the “Hey…Bye…God bless you…Pray for me” relationships or the “Coffee shop and Pizza” relationships. I’m talking about deep, intimate, pure relationships you built with people with God as the centre. You can have a gang of one or a gang of many but you need a God-filled gang.

Exposing the Heart of God:-

The belief that being a follower of Jesus puts you on a lonely road, where you don’t have constants on earth and the only constant is Jesus who hides from time to time is a lie cooked in hell’s kitchen. I had this belief but Jesus kicked it off my mind. We were designed to relate intimately with God and people, not just God.God Loves you and desires an intimate connection with Him, but the story doesn’t end there. God also wants us to have intimate connections with each other.

The Great commandments are Love God and Love people. It is written that we will be known as Jesus’ disciples, when people see our beautiful friendships with each other. Then How on earth can you think and believe “life is a lonely road and I’m walking in it like a stinkin beggar…Waiting for God to take me to heaven”. That’s religious stupidity. God wants you to have beautiful lasting relationships on earth. He wants you to have covenant friends. He doesn’t want to just Love you, He wants to see people Love you. God wants you to be celebrated and cherished on earth.

The Highest expression of Love is in giving your life away for your Friend. John 15:13(King Kenneth Version 😛 )

The people in your family can turn their backs on you but a true friend sent from God will always stick with you. A Covenant friend loves you selflessly and is focused on your benefit than his, so there won’t be any ground for leaving you or rejecting you.

“I found out what the secret to life is- Friends. Best Friends”- Fried Green Tomatoes

Thinking beyond Marriage:-

Marriage is the first relationship designed by God and it is important, that doesn’t mean other relationships are not. Marriage is not the only covenant relationship available; you can have covenant friendships too. God and Abraham were covenant friends. God and Moses hanged out with each other like friends. David and Jonathan were not gay; they were covenant friends, best buddies. Jesus called His disciples as friends and declared that the highest expression of Love is giving your life for friendship.

“To the Ancients, Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves; the crown of life and the school of virtue. The modern world, in comparison, ignores it”- C.S. Lewis

Why you need a Covenant Friend? :-

When God anoints you and appoints you, you will attract enemies. The more you grow in your call and purpose, the more enemies you will earn. Jesus promised us that we will be hated by many. Look at Jesus’s life, He was doing good and good alone but He picked up haters everywhere He went. If you step out for God, you are going to have people come against you from all sides. That’s life baby, you ain’t changing that.

The God who gives Healing for sickness, Forgiveness and Freedom for sins, Blessings for curses and Acceptance for Rejection gives Friends for enemies.In the same way, He can’t bless you without your cooperation; He can’t give you friends without your cooperation. When you open your heart for God-sent friendships, He will either send you to the right ones or bring the right ones to you. Covenant friends will hold your back and take bullets for you when you are under attack, they will drag you in your purpose when you are not able to walk and will give their life for you out of Love. Covenant friends will become like family, they will fight for you and never against you. Most people don’t fulfill their God given purpose because they don’t find their Covenant Friends.

Another foundational reason is that life is tough and you need people who will assist you in living happy. Life will keep throwing things at you but if you have people to catch you, you can move through life without breaking down.

David and Jonathan:-

David needed Jonathan. David’s process of becoming King included Jonathan. They were covenant friends, they loved each other selflessly. Jonathan risked his life to protect David. Jonathan went against his Father for his Friend. Jonathan was not jealous of David; He was ready to love a guy who was going to sit on the throne that rightfully belonged to him. Jonathan lost to make David win. Jonathan was ready to sacrifice his promotion so that David can be promoted.

By the time David had finished reporting to Saul, Jonathan was deeply impressed with David—an immediate bond was forged between them.He became “totally committed” to David. From that point on he would be David’s number-one advocate and friend. Saul received David into his own household that day, no more to return to the home of his father.Jonathan, out of his “deep love” for David, “made a covenant with him”.1 Samuel 18:1-4(MSG)

Marks of Covenant Friendships:-

Be a Friend, if you want a Friend. Friendship cannot exist without mutual selfless love. If you want a friend who will take bullets for you, prepare yourself to be one. Be a Jonathan and God will give you a Jonathan.

You have to Find your covenant friends. They won’t fall into your bedroom while you are fasting and praying. You may have to switch jobs or cities or even countries to find your gang, to find your God-sent people. It will be worth all your sacrifices when you start eating the fruit of your covenant friendships. Sometimes God sends them to you and sometimes you have to go to them.

Covenant Friendships are void of jealousy. Jealousy is one of the strongest relationship killers. I have seen jealousy destroy lives right under my nose. Covenant friends are of a different breed; they care more about your success and promotion than theirs.Jonathan the rightful man to sit on the throne, let his friend David take the throne.

Covenant Friends become like family, sometimes deeper than family. David’s family devalued him, but Jonathan valued him. Jonathan on the other hand went against his “anointed” father to protect his friend. Jesus went against the Pastors of His day when they accused His friends. Covenant friendships are built by God, they are divine connections.

“True friends are like family, and often even closer than family”- Jennifer Leclaire, Charisma Magazine.

Covenant Friends will fight for you and with you no matter what. Life is a battlefield and we need an army to fight our battles. Jesus sent His disciples in two’s to thrash demonic powers. You need people in your life, who will fight for you and fight with you.

Covenant Friends will not fight you at any cost. We may have fights in every relationship but Covenant friends won’t fight because their Love will be mixed with respect. Even when you sin, they will correct you in love and won’t fight you.

Covenant friends will pour out their lives for each other; they will even die for you if needed. You would have heard some tell you that they will die for you and then leave you over an argument but a Covenant friend won’t hesitate to give his life for you.

Covenant friends will be focused on keeping you happy. They will celebrate you and cherish you. They will bring fun into your life; they can’t bear seeing you unhappy. God’s perfect will for your life is joy, never forget that.

Covenant friends will lead you closer to God and help you fulfill your destiny. A God sent friend will lead you closer to God above everything else. They think God is everything and will make sure God is everything in your life. They will make sure that you finish the assignment God has given you. They will do everything needed to keep you on your destiny track.

You have to make a Covenant with someone, to make them your Covenant Friend and to become their Covenant friend. Covenants have to be made and you must give your life to keep the covenant from breaking apart. You don’t have to have a ceremony like we do for marriages but a Covenant has to be made and sealed for it to go live.

You can find a Covenant friend in anyone- the milkman, the president, the janitor or whoever. The only thing that matters is that they Love God and others out of a pure heart. They can be in your family or in your neighbour’s family, in your church or in the church on the other end of the world. They may not come with a halo on their head, they may even show up with tattoos.

Jesus is the only model for a Covenant friend. To be a good friend, you have to learn from Jesus. He gave His life for us. He suffered for us so that we can be free. He was cursed so that we can be blessed. He got broken, so that we can be made whole. A true covenant friend will be focused on looking like Jesus in every way.

Note: The Church is filled with lot of unhealthy friendships. Jesus’ name is used as a tool to flirt. Church fellowships have become a place for satisfying unhealthy desires. You don’t throw your baby because he has poop on him, you remove the poop. Likewise, you must not stay away from friendships just because there are unhealthy relationships out there. True and pure friends are hard to find but it is not impossible.

Trinity and Covenant Friendships:-

The Trinity is so close to my heart because of a personal reason.The Trinity is a mystery but it teaches us a lot of things. One of the revelations we can carve out of the Trinity is that God is a God of intimate connections. God has intimate connections within Himself. The intimate friendship between the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is my pull to build beautiful friendships on earth.When you behold the Trinity with an open heart, the desire to build Covenant God-filled friendships on earth will be burned on your heart. God must always be our closest, “bestest” and deepest friend but we shouldn’t stop there.We must build Covenant friendships out of our Friendship with God. A Covenant Friendship is a Trinity- God, You and Your Covenant Friend.

“If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle”- Naval Adm. William H. McRaven

P.S:- Get alone and pray about this. Ask God for covenant friends; ask Him to show them to you. If He shows you people you already know, talk to them and build a covenant.